4o 



NATURE 



[May ii, 1 88: 



southwards to Ireland, and northwards to the mountains 

 of Mull and Arrochar. On the way down a dyke 

 much more vitreous and obsidian-like than the o;her 

 Arran pitch-stone, was crossed on the ridge between 

 Caisteal Abhail and Cir Mhor, at the head of Glen 

 Sannox. Another day the steps of the party were turned 

 southwards, and as the red rocks of Glen Shurig, which 

 runs inland from Brodick, had hitherto yielded no organic 

 remains capable of identifying their precise geological 

 position, the Professor instituted a methodical search, 

 which resulted in the discovery of numerous more or less 

 distinct impressions of the lycopod psil"phyion, clearly 

 proving them to be, as he had inferred, of Lower < Id 

 Red Sandstone age. Striking southward into Glen Dubh, 

 the geologists then crossed the very perfect series of 

 moraines, left there by the last valley glacier, and return- 

 ing by Glen Cloy, and the well-known pitchstone dyke 

 behind the Brodick Schoolhouse. The fossiliferous lime- 

 stones and shales of Corrie were also well explored, and 

 the position of this strata far down in the heart of the 

 red sandstone series was remarked. 



The concluding ramble of the week brought the party 

 to the celebrated dyke of pitchstone at Corriegills, and 

 the quartz-porphyry of Dur Dubh, both possibly of 

 Tertiary age. 



The latter rock is alike remarkable for its petrographical 

 characters and its geological structure and history. The 

 quartz in it has crystallised into singularly perfect doubly- 

 terminated pyramids, which can be picked up in handfuls 

 from weathered crannies of the rock. Viewed from the 

 north, the end of the quartz-porphyry ridge is seen to 

 present a remarkable columnar arrangement, the columns 

 radiating from a common centre like the ribs of a fan. 

 The Professor pointed out the resemblance of this struc- 

 ture to that of the west end of the Scuir of Eigg, where 

 a stream of vitreous lava has flowed into and filled up a 

 narrow valley, the sides of which have disappeared, and 

 where the radial structure of the pitchstone is due to the 

 rock having cooled in an approximately semicylindrical 

 gorge, perpendicular to whose sides the columns were 

 formed. In each case the superior durability of the mass 

 has enabled it to resist denudation better than the sur- 

 rounding rocks, which have long ago been carried off, 

 leaving the lava standing upas a prominent ridge. Most 

 of the students left Brodick by the afcernoon steamer on 

 Saturday, after a most enjoyable week of geologising with 

 Prof. Archibald Geikie on the last of the delightful long 

 excursions with his Edinburgh class. H. M. C. 



NOTES 



The following telegram from the Special Correspondent of the 

 Daily Nnos with the Eclipse Expedition to Egypt, appears in 

 Tuesday's issue: — " Sohag, Monday, 7.20 p.m. : Every facility 

 has been granted to the Eclipse Expedition by the Egyptian 

 Government. The site chosen is close by the bank of the Nile. 

 The instruments are being set up. The Khedive has shown great 

 interest in the Expedition, and the English party, who are his 

 guests, owe much to the arrangements made by the Governor. 

 The officials and natives are everywhere civil and obliging. The 

 weather apparently is quite settled." Under date of May 9 

 the Times correspondent telegraphs as follows : — " The various 

 Eclipse expeditions arriving at Sohag are being entertained by 

 the Khedive. Most important help has been given by Muktar 

 Bey, the Colonel of the Staff representing the Khedive, and the 

 Government, who have also provided a steamer and a military 

 guard." 



Since we noticed the pamphlet of Prof. Bloxain on the state 

 of affairs at the Royal Military Academy, die subject has been 

 brought before the House of Lords with some prominence ; but the 

 main points of complaint appear to have been ignored. If only 

 a portion of the charges in Prof. Bloxam's ] amphlet can be sus- 



tained, they reveal a very deplorable want of discipline in an 

 important and expensive public establi-hment, and also a feeling 

 on the part of the authorities that subjects like physics and 

 chemistry are of such minor importance to the scientific soldier 

 as to warrant the withholding of the moral support to maintain 

 discipline that Prof. Bloxarn complains of. Some of the state- 

 ments in the pamphlet are so severe that we hesitated to repeat 

 them, but they do not appear to have been controverted. The 

 position of a profe.-sor of a subject that is only looked upon as 

 a sort of useless " extra," deprived to a great extent of the moral 

 support of the heads of the establishment, cannot be a satis- 

 factory cue, and if the late Professor's charges and statements 

 are correct, his successor is not to be envied. 



We regret to record the sudden death of Mr. Charles Hockin, 

 at the early age of forty-two, in the midst of an active career as 

 a civil engineer and electrician, on Wednesday, April 26 last. 

 C. Hockin entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in October, 

 1S19, from Aldenham Grammar School, and was elected scholar 

 in the following May. After a successful career in mathematical 

 work at Ins college he graduated as Third Wrangler in 1S63. 

 Choosing engineering as a profession he became pupil to Messrs. 

 I'.irde and Fleeming Jenkin, and devoted his attention mainly to 

 submarine telegraphy, a province in which his great mathe- 

 matical abilities found scope, and in which he did much good 

 work. He made, however, opportunities for other purely scien- 

 tific pursuits, and co-operated with tbe late Dr. Matthiessen in 

 his researches on the reproduction of electrical standards by 

 chemical means, and also with Sir William Thomson and Clerk- 

 Maxwell in the determination of the B.A. units of electrical 

 resistance and capacity, as well as in the design and construction 

 of the large standard electro-dynamometer for the Committee of 

 the British Association. He « as one of the earliest investigators 

 of the re.-istance of selenium, a material to which so much atten- 

 tion has lately been devoted. His researches on the subject are 

 referred to in the B.A. Report for 1S67. In 1872 he joined as 

 a partner the firm of Clark, Forde, and Co., and in the execution 

 of his professional work visited every quarter of the globe, w inning 

 the respect and esteem of all with whom he came in contact and 

 the affection of the few he admitted to his intimacy. While 

 there have been few scientific men less eager than he was for 

 personal fame, it is seldom that equal powers have been placed 

 so readily as his were at the service of others, and there was no 

 one whose opinion on the subjects to which he devoted himself 

 was held in greater respect by scientific men. He devoted much 

 time to mathematical investigations chiefly in connection with 

 electricity, but comparatively little of his work has been pub- 

 lished by himself, and it is to be hoped that his executors will 

 see their way to the editing and publication of his mathematical 

 papers. 



We learn from Prof. Ray Lankester that another zoological 

 laboratory is to be erected on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 The French Government has decided to establish at Villafranca 

 near Nice a zoological station, the sole object of which will be to 

 provide accommodation to the numerous naturalists who every 

 year are attracted to this locality by its great repotation as a 

 hunting ground for marine animals. Dr. Jules Barroi-, the dis- 

 tinguished embryologist, has been appointed director of the 

 zoological station of Vi!lefranche-sur-Mer. The existence near 

 Nice of a laboratory accessible to strangers, approved by the 

 director, will be an immense boon to Engli h naturalists espe- 

 cially, since the Rivie.a is not separated from us by a very long 

 journey, is a favourite resort of our countrymen, and is on the 

 whole salubrious. It is the most favourable spot for the study 

 of the Mediterranean fauna by the naturalists of northern coun- 

 tries ; and though the new laboratory will by no means compete 

 with or diminish the value of that at Naples, yet it will render 

 possible a short visit to the Mediterranean for the purpose of 



